Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer isn't buying President Barack Obama's claim that the U.S. border with Mexico is more secure than ever.
Attending the National Governors Association meeting in Milwaukee, Brewer told Politico, “It’s Jay Leno comedy every other week,” she told POLITICO during an interview at the National Governors Association meeting here, alluding to the president’s scheduled trip this week to both Phoenix and the talk show host’s couch.
Brewer told Politico the Yuma border is "pretty secure," but "Tucson is a nightmare."
Brewer said no one knows how many people are crossing the border or who they are.
"Everybody that you talk to has different numbers: Border Patrol … Homeland Security … the sheriffs," she said. "It’s the drug cartels that we live with … the drop houses, the extortion, the sex-slavery industry, the gangs fighting one another."
Brewer says she doesn't want an immigration bill that includes amnesty to pass. On Saturday, she called on Congress to pass a stand-alone border security bill.
"We’re not going to live through 1986 once again, where President Reagan – my hero – gave amnesty and said our borders would be secured and it didn’t take," Brewer said.
There is a combative history between Brewer and Obama. The federal government sued Arizona in 2010 for passing its own immigration laws after Brewer denounced the federal government for failing to enforce federal laws. Then Arizona sued the federal government in 2011 for failing to enforce those laws.
